Politics

Algeria: Opposition candidates challenge President Tebboune’s re-election

Published

7 days ago

September 12, 2024

Two opposition candidates from the recently concluded elections in Algeria have formally contested the provisional result, sharply criticising election officials and contesting the vote total.

The first move towards contesting the election results was taken by Islamist Abdellali Hassani Cherif and socialist Youcef Aouchiche, who filed appeals with Algeria’s Constitutional Court. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the incumbent president, won the election with 94.7% of the vote.

According to Algerian law, the court has ten days from the time the provisional election results are announced to decide on the appeals. Should a ruling be rendered, the electoral body might be forced to redo the totals for each candidate without doubting Tebboune’s victory.

Both candidates criticized Mohamed Charfi, the head of Algeria’s National Independent Electoral Authority (ANIE), the day before they filed their appeals.

“President Tebboune didn’t need this stuffing. We knew he’d be reelected, but with these results, ANIE hasn’t done him any favours,” Cherif said. “We want our votes — the votes of the people who voted for us — to be returned to us. I know it won’t change the outcome of the vote, but it will go down in history.”

At a press conference, Aouchiche’s campaign manager presented visuals that he said demonstrated how the results had been tampered with, labelling the result a “shameful and gross manipulation.”

He referred to the 1970s, when the only recognised political party in the nation ran its preferred candidate unopposed, saying, “These results, which do not correspond at all to the number of votes communicated to us by the regional delegations of the same ANIE, are a disgrace for the Algeria of 2024, taking us back to that era.”

The disparities in the number of votes counted to determine the outcome and the turnout statistics released by election officials the day before have been criticised by the two contenders. Tebboune joined them late on Sunday, September 9, joining the public outrage that his rivals had stoked against ANIE.

Campaign managers for Tebboune, Aouchiche, and Cherif questioned the results released by ANIE and noted that they didn’t match the regional data provided by local authorities in a joint statement.

“We inform national public opinion that inaccuracies, contradictions, ambiguities and inconsistencies were noted in the figures when the provisional results of the presidential election were announced by the chairman of the National Independent Election Authority,” they wrote.

Algeria has a system of universal suffrage. The President. who is chosen for a five-year term that is renewable once is in charge of both the High Security Council and the Council of Ministers. The Prime Minister, who serves as the head of state, is chosen by him. The Council of Ministers is chosen by the Prime Minister.

Politics

Ghanian opposition protests, demands audit of voters register

Published

10 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Ghana’s major opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party protested statewide on Tuesday, seeking an independent forensic audit to clean up the voter register for free and fair elections.

NDC leaders said the election commission secretly relocated voters to various voting sites, undermining the register.

In red and black, thousands of supporters marched through Accra’s main streets, blasting reggae and campaign music and calling on international bodies, Ghana’s peace council, and religious and civil society groups to intervene. Protest leaders petitioned parliament and the Accra electoral agency. Ghana’s other 15 regions also saw protests, local media said.

Protester Kwame Acheampong, 68, told Reuters in Akan that his registration had been moved from the capital to Tamale. He asked, “How can I vote in Tamale?”

Meanwhile, the electoral commission claims the flaws were fixed. It suspended a northern Pusiga district director in August for “using his credentials to transfer voters without their knowledge.” Ghana is one of Africa’s most stable democracies, although eight people died in the last election, which was marred by opposition claims that the government unjustly influenced the vote, which it rejected.

Allegations of irregularities tarnish the electoral authorities. Afrobarometer’s July survey found Ghana’s election commission’s trust at an all-time low since confidence polls began in 1999. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, NDC chairman, told demonstrators he wanted “transparent elections.”

Ghana will have general elections for president and parliamentarians on December 7, 2024. President Nana Akufo-Addo cannot run again due to term limits after eight years. Old NDC president John Dramani Mahama will face New Patriotic Party Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia in the election.

The President of Ghana is elected in two rounds, while 275 MPs are elected in single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting.

Politics

South Sudan ready to resume pumping oil through Sudan

Published

15 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

According to South Sudan’s finance minister and the president’s office, progress has been made in getting South Sudan and Sudan to resume supplying crude oil through a pipeline that goes to a port in their neighbourhood.

South Sudan depends heavily on its oil exports for its income, and Sudan keeps a portion of the oil as a transit fee.

The devastation resulting from a fight between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces forced the closure of the major pipeline that transported oil from South Sudan via Sudan for export in February. According to observers, the stoppage has caused food prices in Sudan, where millions of people suffer from acute hunger, to rise. The damage is likely to cause major environmental degradation.

“Sudanese engineers have accomplished the necessary technical preparations for the resumption of oil production,” South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s office said in a statement late on Monday after a meeting in Juba between Kiir and Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

“Engineers from South Sudan are expected to visit Sudan in the coming weeks to familiarise themselves with the readiness of the facilities to jump-start production.”

“There has been a breakthrough, and (news of) it will come to the public very soon,” South Sudan’s Finance Minister Marial Dongrin Ater told a news conference late on Monday.
Burhan’s office said the two sides would develop an operational plan to restart oil flows.

Due to intercommunal violence, South Sudan’s economy has been under strain recently. Since the civil war that lasted from 2013 to 2018, revenue from crude oil exports has decreased, and more recently, export disruptions have occurred because of the conflict in neighbouring Sudan.

Following its independence from Khartoum in 2011, South Sudan began exporting roughly 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day through Sudan, following a formula that took the majority of the country’s oil production with it.

Before the civil war, South Sudan produced between 350,000 and 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day at its highest point.